(Central image-original artwork above is created at its final stage by using AI agents).
Yesterday's launch of Orion, the augmented reality eyewear by Meta, was very much an expected evolution in the smart eyewear industry which falls perfectly into place with these news released by Euromonitor. News that certainly deserve a separate post.
Following the updates of EssilorLuxottica extending their long-term partnership with Meta, there is some expert commentary below on the potential impact of this 10-year deal to further advance the development of smart eyewear.
EssilorLuxottica, the gigantic and legendary French-Italian coalition in eyewear and optical lenses join Meta: both have been leading the change with their collaboration on Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses since 2019. EssilorLuxottica’s decision to extend the long-term partnership with Meta is exactly the right move. This extension could transform the landscape of the sector finally bringing AR experiences closer to mainstream acceptance, with Meta’s long-term vision to build the next generation AI. The question is will Ray-Ban Stories be the game changer or will another major tech companies or a small start up be the one to transform the era of AR smart glasses. The race is on. Of course challenges remain regarding privacy and data security concerns, battery life and socially acceptable designs. However, in Euromonitor’s opinion, smart eyewear is no longer five to 10 years away from becoming part of the mainstream.’
We are eagerly waiting the extras on this fascinating huge alliance and certainly the reaction of the EU central administration regarding GDPR and copyright implications as they are previously established for all digital goods and services in the continent. The crossover between edutainment to optical and probably later hearing aids, also remains a sector to watch from now on since the launch. There is an enlargement not to say a marriage of many scientific domains other than tech, which is going to affect further the design process of the product and its many uses.
Smart glasses are here to stay, it seems. Next step will be new frames in design, materials and colours and combination of the augmented reality part with the refractive power of the lenses (dioptres or dpt) for vision purposes. You got three major players working on that now.
Much love + design ❣️💙💚🤓😎
A4D-D4A
